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Abalone (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony)
Abalone is a side character in the audio drama Confessions of a Wasteland Pony. Her story is told by her niece Amber Horn in the fourth episode, The Engineer. Biography Childhood Abalone is an earth pony mare that was born in Stable 80. From a young age, Abalone was constantly thrust into positions of leadership. The Stable 80 experiment was wiping out the adults of the stable at an accelerated rate. As children, Abalone would often being the one looking after her younger sister Amber Glow when their parents weren't able to. Eventually, the successive plagues resulted in Abalone being the oldest living inhabitant of the Stable and by default the new Overmare. At only 16 years of age, Abalone knew they had to get out but even with her Overmare permissions wasn't able to open the door. It was only with her sister's programming skills, coupled with the Overmare passwords, that they were able to finally do it. Even still, the guilt of needing her baby sister's help lead to a feeling of helplessness that would also define much of Abalone's life as a leader. Once out of the stable, they were able to live off of the land somewhat successfully for many years. The open wastes proved to be the environment Abalone operated best in. As a capable marksman, Abalone was able to hunt for food or kill creatures threatening their small farms. Sentinel Despite these skills, Abalone could not fight off a well equipped slaver party from capturing them. Fast Whip had them all brought to the Oasis Slaver Settlement. While trying to stand up for her friends, Abalone was again discarded as Fast Whip wanted Amber Glow to help reprogram the pipbucks and turn them into bomb collars. However, when Sparky & Amber Glow discussed their plan to break out Abalone jumped at the opportunity. They were able to escape and Abalone once more kept the group alive in the open wasteland, despite the size of it having increased from 36 to 236. They remained nomadic for several weeks and months, seeking out a new place to settle down. This is when the group stumbled on Mare Island. Once inside the facility, the group were almost killed by sentineldroids. They were only saved thanks to Amber Glow being able to reprogram them. Abalone hated the machines, knowing she was powerless to control them if they threatened Amber Glow or any of the others. Still, the island was the group's best chance for survival, so she followed Amber and Sparky's lead. The three of them ran the new group of "Sentinels" (as they began calling themselves) as a triumvirate. The society thrived as they had more resources and protection than they'd ever had before. This lasted two years before a mysterious visitor appeared at the doors of the island. The "escaped slave" pleaded for entrance. Sparky was fully convinced, and it was Abalone whom he convinced first. The two of them together convinced Amber Glow to go along with it. This would change everything as Silver Step was working for the slavers to try to recover the lost slaves of Oasis. He took Amber Glow hostage and Abalone quickly took up a position to shoot him. The stress of the scenario was too much for her though, and she over-corrected her shot. Instead of shooting his head, she only grazed his shoulder. She had failed in arguable her best skill... marksmanship. Because of that, Amber Glow was stabbed and the wound would eventually contribute to her death in childbirth. Chief Sentinel Both Abalone and Sparky were wracked with guilt for contributing to Amber Glow's death. With one of the triumvirate dead, Sparky gave up his leadership completely. Abalone, feeling incapable as a leader as well, created a bureaucracy of different departments to run most of the business of the island. She however, was still the Chief Sentinel of Mare Island. Instead, Abalone shaped a total isolationist policy of the Sentinels with the wasteland. No traveler or wastelander would ever be permitted entrance again. Sentinels were not allowed to return if they left for any reason, for fear that they too would be blackmailed into sabotaging the island. This policy would not require enforcing, as the horrific incident had convinced nearly all of them that it was the right course of action. As Amber Horn grew up, Abalone did all she could to be a mother figure in her life. She loved her as much as her sister and did everything she could to give her the life Amber Glow deserved. When Amber Horn proved just as capable at programming as her mother, Abalone feared for her life and refused to let her into the main tower building to try to break the encryption. Only when the slaver army, led by Lockjaw, appear at their gates did things change. But after that first attempt was a failure, Abalone once more prevented Amber Horn from entering the tower. Once the island was under full assault, Abalone considered putting as many Sentinels as she could on the ''R.E.S. Blue Moon ''so that they could escape. Before she could fully consider all those scenarios though, Amber Horn made a rush for the tower and eventually worked her way down to the main command level. Amber Horn was able to stop the slavers by taking control of the island, but it cost Sparky his life. Abalone was horrified, seeing his death as another failure of hers, but failed to foresee how much guilt Amber Horn would feel for his loss. Before she could truly talk to Amber Horn about what happened, she disappeared into the wasteland one night. She had left Abalone a note, saying she had given her the Executive Level control of Mare Island's systems. Abalone was now the sole authority over the machines within the fortress, and now the last of her family was gone too. Amber Horn believed this was for the best, that she was a curse on the Sentinels and that they'd be better off without her. She believes Abalone never went looking for her. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen, but since Amber's confession DJ Pony has done all he can to reach out to Abalone and reunite the two. Quotes * "You have to imagine her, a sixteen year old girl, standing in front of a group of kids and surrounded by the dead bodies of all the adults. She was the oldest one left in the Stable, and she knew that if she didn’t do something soon, they were all going to die. But even as Overmare, she found that she had no power to get them out. The Stable door was sealed tight, and there was nothing she could do. It was only thanks to Amber Glow, her little sister, that they were able to finally escape. And as proud as she was of my mom, it still made her feel helpless." - Amber Horn * "The mare at the front center stepped forward. (...) Her name was Abalone, and she was the leader of their village. Her mark was a lavender energy crystal, like the kind you use to power arcane devices. But before she could say anything else, another mare stepped up next to her and pushed her back. She was an orange colored unicorn with a soft yellow mane. Her mark was an image of a Stable-Tec server, with the notable green tint of its screen. Her name was Amber Glow. The first mare, Abalone looked horrified, like Amber Glow had taken her place to be executed. But it was no use. Amber Glow’s mark gave her away too easily. It was obvious she was the one keeping the PipBucks running all these years. But Abalone was still hard pressed to let her go, she loved her too much and was afraid to watch her little sister die." - Amber Horn * "She felt the same way, it was because of her deciding vote on the council that they rejected the plan to open up the tower building. She had failed to protect my mother, in a situation where she should have had total control but made mistakes. There was no way she was going to allow me, a young filly, to be put in harm's way trying to take command of the tower. If Aunt Abalone couldn’t go in to shut down the robots herself, then no one was… especially her sister’s only child. A lot of my childhood was like this… Abalone and my dad came to similar conclusions from different vantage points… Whenever that involved my mother, it came out of a shared sense of guilt…" - Amber Horn * "So, citizens of Post-Apocalyptia… I’m not sure if this story will help anyone else out there, but honestly, more than anything… I hope it can help Amber… I don’t know how far my voice carries across the vast, empty wasteland anymore… But if anyone from Mare Island is listening… If Abalone is listening… Then I want to let you know that Amber Horn is her at Tenpony Tower in Neigh York. She is alive, and safe… but she is broken. She disappeared because she was unfortunately driven by guilt. And even though that has clouded her, she only made those decisions because she loved you. If you care about her as much as Homage and I do, please contact me, somehow. Because the story… can’t end like this…” - DJ Pony Behind The Scenes * In universe, Abalone was given her name because her colors reminded her parents of the iridescent insides of the family of mollusks. Metaphorically, the Abalone is meant to represent her personality. She has a rough jagged exterior concealing a true beauty inside. A sea creature namesake was chosen as she becomes the ruler over an island fortress on toxic black waters. * Like with Amber Glow, Abalone was intended to have a bit of a "Fargo" style accent, although it would have been softer than her sister's. The idea that she was quicker to adapt to the wasteland as it was more "her element." Her accent would have become more like Amber Horn's much quicker than the rest of the Stable 80 survivors. * Abalone's fate and her actions since Amber Horn left are still unknown, the only clue so far is the post-credits sequence seen in the video version of The Engineer. Category:EAST Corp Productions Category:Confessions of a Wasteland Pony Category:Earth ponies Category:Characters Category:Characters (Confessions of a Wasteland Pony)